Montini: Feds now say 1,475 lost migrant kids aren’t lost ... but don’t know where they are

Before announcing a plan to separate more families apprehended at the border, shouldn't there first be a plan to ensure we don't lose the kids?
EJ Montini, opinion columnist

EJ Montini: The Trump administration seems more worried about getting some bad press than it is about the children.

Central American migrant children camped outside the entrance of the San Ysidro port of entry on April 30, 2018. Locals and other humanitarian organization bring the blanket, clothing, and food after being turned away Sunday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on April 30, 2018.(Photo: Nick Oza/The Republic)

The federal government says the 1,475 migrant children who were taken into custody at the border and can no longer be located are not lost. They simply don’t know where they are.

Wait …

Isn’t not knowing the whereabouts of these children sort of the definition of lost?

Or is the government rewriting the dictionary?

And are their friends in the media trying to help them.

I received several emails from writers at The National Review asking if I will issue a correction on the "inaccurate information" in a previous column that read, "The federal government has lost — yes, lost — 1,475 migrant children in its custody."

The argument goes that once the government turns the children over to others the kids are not technically in its custody.

Let's concede that is technically true. Does it absolve the government of responsibility for the children?

A new definition for 'lost?'

“The assertion that unaccompanied alien children (UAC) are ‘lost’ is completely false. …The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, began voluntarily making calls in 2016 as a 30-day follow-up on the release of UAC to make sure that UAC and their sponsors did not require additional services. This additional step, which is not required and was not done previously, is now being used to confuse and spread misinformation.

“These children are not ‘lost’; their sponsors — who are usually parents or family members and in all cases have been vetted for criminality and ability to provide for them — simply did not respond or could not be reached when this voluntary call was made. While there are many possible reasons for this, in many cases sponsors cannot be reached because they themselves are illegal aliens and do not want to be reached by federal authorities ..."

The sad truth seems to be that the government has a lousy program for dealing with children who cross the border and are taken into custody.

Steven Wagner, acting assistant secretary for Children and Families first admitted to Congress that the whereabouts of 1,475 such children are unknown.

He says now, "ORR is not legally responsible for children after they are released from ORR care," adding that the program for dealing with such children “was never intended to be a foster care system with more than 10,000 children in custody …"

Not legally responsible?

Never intended to be foster care?

How are we not responsible?

These are children we’re talking about. How can the adults who take them into custody not be responsible for their care? Or be permitted to say the children are no longer our problem because we turned them over to someone else?

He said, "We've got these kids. They're here. They're living on our soil. And for us to just, you know, assume someone else is going to take care of them and throw them to the wolves, which is what HHS was doing, is flat-out wrong. I don't care what you think about immigration policy, it's wrong."

President Donald Trump’s administration is taking heat because even Americans who go along with much of the president’s border security notions don’t want anything to happen to children.

None of us do. Or should.

And it’s really this simple.

Once the government takes a child under its wing, it is our responsibility to make sure that child is being cared for properly. And is safe.

The states do this regularly, though not always perfectly.

When a child is taken into custody by a state – any state, every state – there are systems in place to track that child, check-up on the child’s welfare and not rely on a “voluntary” response from the adult to whom the child was entrusted.

Admit the problem and fix it

If the federal government can’t do that, it should admit the failure and work really hard to correct it. Instead, the administration seems more worried about getting a little bad press than it is about those 1,475 kids.

Wherever they are.

It’s a mess.

And, ultimately, what is “lost” in all this is not just the children, but our sense of responsibility. Our sense of decency. Our sense of humanity. Our common sense.